The Galway Advertiser understands that City Hall’s arts officer James Harrold will commission a scale model of the proposed monument to be made. This will then be presented to the Galway City Council’s Working Group on Public Arts for consideration, and later city manager Joe O’Neill for final approval. The approval of city councillors may also need to be sought.

The idea to erect a monument to Che Guevara comes from a proposal made by Labour councillor Billy Cameron, an ardent admirer of the revolutionary, that a monument be erected in Galway and that the project be undertaken in conjunction with the Cuban and Argentinean embassies to Ireland.

The proposed monument has been designed by Simon McGuinness and it is understood that it will feature the iconic image of Che created by the Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, commonly seen on posters and T-shirts.

Both men were in Galway recently to inspect proposed sites for the location of the Che monument. While no definite site has been chosen it is likely that the Salthill Promenade, possibly around the area of the Atlantaquaria, will be its location.

There should be no room in a beautiful city like Galway, in a free country like Ireland, to honor a mass murdering sociopathic racist Communist whose aim in life was to destroy the very freedoms and rights the Irish have struggled so hard to attain throughout their history. To build this monument, with the aim of making it a tourist attraction, is an insult to the very ideals of the Irish nation and the city of Galway.

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He’s a member of something called the “Cuba Support Group”, a totalitarian-supporting Cuban front organization whose primary theme seems to be to agitate for the freedom of Cuban spies imprisoned in the US. It sure is entertaining to read the website; it’s a journey back to the 20′s in time. These clowns sound like my great-aunt, who took her honeymoon in Moscow because Stalin was so inspiring.

Sounds like you lot need to lay off the whiskey. It wasn’t all that long ago that YOU were the ones being shot, starved, and shipped off from home and family for the pettiest reasons. Or has Ireland been infected with a bad case of “American memory” and forgot all about it?

If you’re going to build a monument for this monster, why not go for equality and build one for Oliver Cromwell too?!

I sent a note to Billy, but now I see that he is a Che promoter, so the note will most likely have zero effect. I couldn’t find an email addy for the Galway City Council’s Working Group on Public Arts. Will keep looking…

There should be no room in a beautiful city like Galway, in a free country like Ireland, to honor a mass murdering sociopathic racist Communist whose aim in life was to destroy the very freedoms and rights the Irish have struggled so hard to attain throughout their history.

Ireland has a long history of Marxist ideology. The IRA and Sinn-Fein are historically both Marxist. (Most of) Ireland was liberated by a “terrorist” campaign against the British Empire. The Irish have much sympathy for anyone who claims to be a victim of imperial oppression. They went through about 4 centuries of such oppression.

There is a lot of envy in todays Ireland. Small minded and petty. This is no doubt an attempt to feel relavent in a world that is passing them by(again). These same leftists that are singing Che’s praises were the same ones who rode on the back of the Celtic tiger,flew to NY to do there Xmas shopping and built garish houses that they now cannot afford to heat.
And they call Americans vulgar.

This is a difficult topic for me. Being Irish, I have made it a point to learn about my country of ancestry, and particularly the Troubles.

The problem here is that the IRA that operated for the last few decades of the 20th century was a terrorist group…one that sympathized with other groups that they saw as downtrodden. This included Palestinians, Cubans, and various South American guerrilla movements. As a result, the majority of the Irish are extremely left-learning…even more so than the Brits. So…*sigh*…they don’t see Che as a mass murderer. They see him as little different than they did, fighting to end the British occupation. Having examined events like Bloody Sunday, I can see where they’re coming from, even if I don’t agree with all they’ve done. Ireland is an endlessly tragic nation.

This is a difficult topic for me. Being Irish, I have made it a point to learn about my country of ancestry, and particularly the Troubles.

The problem here is that the IRA that operated for the last few decades of the 20th century was a terrorist group…one that sympathized with other groups that they saw as downtrodden. This included Palestinians, Cubans, and various South American guerrilla movements. As a result, the majority of the Irish are extremely left-learning…even more so than the Brits. So…*sigh*…they don’t see Che as a mass murderer. They see him as little different than they did, fighting to end the British occupation. Having examined events like Bloody Sunday, I can see where they’re coming from, even if I don’t agree with all they’ve done. Ireland is an endlessly tragic nation.

MadisonConservative on February 25, 2012 at 1:13 AM

Exactly right. Having been a student of Irish history for some decades, and traveled there numerous times to further study the political and historical/cultural landscape, I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment. Ireland is not the United States; Britain is not the United States either. Americans really should try to keep that in mind. The Irish people are a wonderful people; but they do not have the same worldview–they are a very small island, with a history of being occupied by a foreign government [just facts] and their perspective, passed down through generations of family lore, includes suffering beyond belief [an gorta mor--the great starvation]. Rightly or wrongly, Che represents a “freedom fighter” to them. I really think it’s arrogant beyond belief to try to tell people in another country they cannot build a statue of Che–in fact, in my view, it borders on ludicrous. If one doesn’t know the first thing about Ireland’s political/historical/cultural/economic landscape, one has no business telling them what to do in their own country.

Shucks, after reading the inanity proposed by these idiots, I couldn’t wait to get down here and comment… but alas, Ragspierre & jclittlp have already shared the perfect comments, so I can say little but, Hear, Hear!!

….Rightly or wrongly, Che represents a “freedom fighter” to them. I really think it’s arrogant beyond belief to try to tell people in another country they cannot build a statue of Che–in fact, in my view, it borders on ludicrous. ….

mountainaires on February 25, 2012 at 10:15 AM

Be proud of your rationalization for excusing the embracing of evil. Be proud of your condemnation of those who stand to criticize the embracing of evil.